Crosswords, Spaghetti and Robots
by Livi-Love
Summary: Karai has captured Leonardo. He needs to break out, rescue his brothers and escape.


**I wrote all of this at school so if some of it is weird, it's because I was bored.  
**

**T! M! N! T! Does not belong to me!

* * *

**Leonardo's body smashed into the ground. He raised his head, gritting his teeth to mute the screams of pain that were desperately trying to be made public, as if doing so would cause help to come. He would never give her the satisfaction of seeing herself get to him. The pleasure of seeing him so powerless and in her mercy.

Blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth but he made no attempt to wipe it away. Instead, he watched as it dripped onto his scarred wrists. He could still feel the tight metal handcuffs he had worn before cutting into his skin. He remained still, not noticeably breathing, as he gazed into his captor's eyes. Evil radiated out of them.

"Ha," went Karai.

Leonardo did not respond.

The woman stroked the collar that was crushing his neck, her fingers dancing lightly over its surface. She transferred them to the chain attached to his collar and moved her hand along it until she could reach no further. Her eyes lingered on where the end of the chain met the wall before she put her full attention back onto the turtle.

"Like a dog," she said.

She walked off and stood a few feet away, facing away from him. Leonardo glared at her back like it had farted whilst he had been meditating. She didn't seem to want to do anything else but Leonardo wasn't going to leave it there.

"You've played your games." His voice was hoarse. "Where are my brothers?"

She shrugged her bony shoulders. "Somewhere."

"Where?"

She turned her head slightly so he could see the left half of it. Her eyes were half-closed either because she was staring at him with disgust and wanted to blur him out, or because she had too much mascara on. "You are in no position to ask such things."

He forced himself to sit up properly, crossing his legs and resting his aching hands on his thighs.

"I have put each of them in a separate cell," she began to pace, "each labelled from one to three. You must choose one number. The turtle in that cell will go free and live for another day. The other two will **die**."

A bolt of lightning struck behind her even though they were not outside, but in a cold and smelly room with a single candle for light.

"What about me?" he asked.

"You will go free as well."

"So you can kill me later?"

"Perhaps. Now choose a number."

Leonardo could not choose a number. Well, he could obviously because it's not that difficult a task, but he didn't want to pick one. In doing so, he was killing two of his brothers. In addition to that, the other one was just going to live until Karai decided to kill him. For all he knew, she was just going to do it tomorrow. Or she might be lying.

While he mentally debated with himself what to do, Karai sat on a Foot ninja's corpse and got out a magazine.

"I have a question," he said.

Karai grunted, turning the page and reading an article about some guy who went out with a girl with two noses.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because you sent my father far away when I told you not to," she replied, crossing one of her legs over the other.

"What has that got to do with this?"

Karai took a moment to answer. "I am avenging him."

Leonardo leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. A chunk of mouldy bread was stuck to it. Fearing he would get struck by it, he shifted to the side so he wasn't directly underneath it.

"We didn't exile your father, you know. That was the utroms."

"You caused the spaceship to explode."

"Fair point."

Karai and Leonardo sat in silence for a bit. She could tell that he was watching her so continued reading her magazine. She didn't know why she had it in the first place. Nor did she know why there were dead bodies everywhere. They just seemed to be… there. They had become part of the room. She would get the cleaner to dispose of them, but that would get rid of the whole 'impending doom' atmosphere and she didn't want that.

Karai didn't know what the time was, but it usually took her an hour to read the entire magazine. She arrived there at five, so… She began counting on her fingers, muttering in Japanese.

"Six," Leonardo piped up helpfully. She thanked him coldly, folding the magazine in half and tucking it under her arm.

"It will be meal time soon."

"Am I having the usual?" he queried.

She nodded.

Leonardo pointed at the folded up magazine. "Can I…?"

"I left the crossword blank just for you," she stated, taking out the pen that was perched on her ear and giving it to him, along with the magazine. Reminding him that she was only leaving to get his food in case he had forgotten during the five seconds she hadn't mentioned it, she locked the door behind her and briskly made her way to the lunch hall.

She walked through the lunch hall, which was where her minions were eating their dinner. It was Wednesday, so they were all eating spaghetti. Each of them used one hand to twirl and eat the food and the other to hold up the bottom of the mask so the food could reach their mouths.

A fat lady with straggly ginger hair greeted Karai from behind the serving hatch. The woman's white apron was too tight, causing her arms and face to be the same colour as it. This made the freckles that decorated her flesh all that much easier to pick out. She smiled a toothless smile as Karai told her she was fetching food for the prisoner.

"He's a nice lad, innit?" The dinner lady grinned. Water sprayed out of her mouth with every syllable. Karai grimaced, taking a step back. "I sees him yesterday, 'cause I wants to see if he likes my food, and he was ever so nice. Says please and thank you for everythin'. Don't get that kinda respect from other kids his age."

"No," Karai agreed.

The dinner lady got out a clean plate from the stack and put a slice of bread onto it. Then, she pulled a jar of jam out of thin air and spread some over the thick piece of bread.

She winked at Karai. "Little extra from me, innit? Think he'll like it?"

"Oh yes," Karai agreed. "Most definitely."

"Where are you having your dinner, lovie?"

"I need to guard him, so I am eating with Leonardo."

"Aw…" The dinner lady winked at her again. "Got a little crush, have you? Always wanting to eat with him, yous are."

Karai didn't bother to reply. The dinner lady roared with laughter, spooning some leftover spaghetti onto the plate.

"'Cause," the dinner lady looked at her with beady eyes, the most serious she had been all day, "if you're not interested, I might just asks him to marry me. You don't get many lads like that and I'm beginning to lose my looks."

She snorted and rubbed one of her sausage-like fingers against her moustachioed top lip. She burst out laughing, the ground shaking a bit with each 'a puppy is dying every second she does this' giggle.

"He will be most pleased," Karai remarked, desperate to get away. She grabbed a tray, put the plate on it and walked off quickly.

No one was looking at her. She sped up as much as she could without drawing attention to herself. If she was fast, then maybe she would avoid-

"MISTRESS!"

Karai pretended she hadn't heard the whiny voice that was practically right in her ear. She also pretended to be unaware of the hundreds of Foot ninjas staring at her. She continued walking, hoping that the whiny voice's owner would think he was talking to the wrong person and go away. Forever.

The whiny person didn't take the hint and jumped in front of her. His red hair stood out in the dullness of the room so she couldn't make out she couldn't see him.

"Doctor Chaplin," she said. She hated being called Mistress, especially in front of other people. It gave the impression she liked him as opposed to wanting to push him into a pit of bloodthirsty lemurs. "I thought I fired you last week."

He laughed and elbowed her playfully in the ribs, raising and lowering his eyebrows as he did so. "Doctor Stockman said I could stay. He said that you would be heartbroken if I left."

Karai furrowed her brow. When she had taken charge of the Foot, hadn't Stockman gone to work for Agent Bishop? Fearing that she had found a plot hole which would cause the world to explode, she decided not to pursue it. She tried to dodge past him but he moved as well, blocking her way. She hated it when people did that.

Chaplin studied the plate of food on her tray, his smile faltering. When he looked at her face, his suspicions were confirmed. No longer behaving like he was on nitrous oxide, he said, "You're eating with him again, huh."

"I do not want to," she lied. "However, I do not trust anyone else. Leonardo is a slippery one."

Chaplin nodded furiously. "You are completely right, Mistress." Her left eye twitched. "I'm sorry for doubting you."

"It is fine," she replied, "just do not do it again."

She left the lunch hall. As soon as she was gone, Chaplin reached into the pocket on the inside of his lab coat and pulled out a small ventriloquist dummy, which was wearing a matching lab coat and smiling foolishly.

Chaplin put the dummy's mouth against his ear. "Oh no, Doctor Stockman, I could never be as smart and witty as you. She only let me stay on your orders… What's that, Doctor Stockman? You want me to destroy Leonardo so Mistress will spend more time with me? Only you could give such good advice!"

He proceeded to kiss the dummy and skip out of the room, holding its hand and swinging his arms merrily. There was an awkward silence hanging above the Foot ninjas as they stared after him.

TMNTNMT

Karai re-entered the prison cell, closing the door behind her with her foot as her hands were full. Leonardo was sprawled on his plastron, tapping the pen against his chin as he studied the crossword in front of him. Karai knew it was rude to disrupt people while they were concentrating so put the tray of food next to him and stood over the mutant turtle.

"I know what three down is," she said.

Leonardo threw her a dirty look. "It'll come to me in a minute."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Fine, but your meal is here."

Leonardo cast his eyes towards the tray. "Where's yours?"

"I am not hungry."

"You need to eat more," he scolded, waggling his finger at her. "You've lost a lot of weight. Here, have some of my spaghetti."

"No, thank you. Did I hurt you when I opened the door in your face? It was an accident."

"I'm all right."

"Have you chosen a number?"

He ignored her, rereading the clue for three down. She repeated herself in case he hadn't heard, but it was apparent that he was all too aware of what she had asked him. Realizing this, he tore his gaze off the crossword and gazed at her warily.

"No, I haven't. And you can't make me choose."

"Yes, I can. If you do not choose by the end of the day, I shall kill all of them."

"You are really twisted, you know that?"

It appeared she did not know that nor did she want to accept it. She turned away, the corners of her eyes burning. "Then what do you propose I do?"

Leonardo feigned pondering this heavily. "You could, you know, set them free."

Karai decided she did not look weak any longer and allowed herself to glare at him. How confident he was, lying on his stomach and filling in a crossword. How arrogant he was, mocking her like she was an idiot when she held his fate in her hands. Why, if she could, she would tie him to a tree and set him alight.

But couldn't she do that, holding his fate in her hands?

Shaking her head, she said coldly, "They would come and attempt to break you free, only for me to capture them. Like the last five times. We have had this conversation many a time, Leonardo."

Leonardo groaned, frustrated. "Then let me go as well. Seriously, what are you accomplishing from doing this? You're wasting time and money containing and keeping us alive."

Without thinking, Karai murmured, "It is not a waste."

"What?"

She jumped. "I mean... keeping you prisoner is not a waste."

He put his attention back on the crossword. She peered down at it and said, "Lonesome."

"What?"

"Three down. It is lonesome."

Leonardo growled quietly at her. Karai flashed him a small smile, a twinkle of emotion in her eyes.

TMNTNMT

Doctor Chaplin prowled the corridor, his Baxter Stockman dummy perched on his left arm. He had not seen Karai for three hours and fifty two minutes. This was three hours and fifty two minutes too long. His throat felt tight and he had difficulty breathing.

"You think she's with Leonardo?" Chaplin repeated.

"Yes," the Baxter Stockman dummy replied in a squeaky voice, "I am sure of it. He must he holding her hostage."

Chaplin congratulated the dummy on being so smart and made his way towards where Leonardo was being kept. He would be such a hero when he burst into the room, slaying their enemy and swooping Karai off her feet. Yes, he could see it now...

"_Oh Chaplin," Karai moaned, hearts flooding out of her eyes. Her arms were wrapped around his torso and her lips were inches from his own. She blinked lots of times, smiling sweetly at him. "You have slain our enemy and saved my life. Marry me!"_

_Chaplin, who was big and muscular with a hairy chest, laughed and said in a low, sexy voice, "It was nothing, Mistress. I would do anything for you. Now, let's hang Leonardo's head on the bit of wall above the toilet."_

A passing Foot ninja, who had somehow witnessed Chaplin's vision, hastily scampered the other way. Chaplin laughed in what he thought was an evil way (but in reality resembled the laugh of a schoolgirl) before heading towards Leonardo's cell.

He got there pretty quickly, what with working there for a long time and all. Outside the door were a pair of Elite Foot ninjas, who were standing eerily still with their weapons drawn out in front of them. One was holding a trident, while the other carried a rather large two-edged sword. They glared at Chaplin as he approached them. The Elite did not like Karai, though they shared one common interest: their hatred of Doctor Chaplin.

"What do you want?" asked one of them.

"Doctor Stockman and I wish to see the prisoner and Karai," he replied, shaking his dummy slightly.

"Dear God, he has the dummy again," groaned the ninja with the trident, facepalming.

"Why must you see them?" asked the other one warily.

Chaplin pointed at the door with the arm that wasn't supporting the dummy. "How do you know that he isn't threatening to kill her in there?"

The two Elite ninjas shrugged their shoulders.

"What if," he pressed on, "he jumped on her and gagged her and now he's making her do stuff like giving out top secret information?"

"That would be pretty bad," the ninja holding the two-edged sword said emotionlessly.

Chaplin gave him a withering look. "You don't really give a hoot about her, do you?"

The Elite ninjas mysteriously didn't hear him. Instead, one of them said, "You're just scared they're making out or something."

Chaplin laughed loudly, his dummy bobbing up and down. "What a preposterous notion you have there! As if there would be any attraction between the two of them. This isn't fanfiction, you know!"

"I thought it was," whispered one of the Elite ninjas, receiving an elbow to the ribs in response. "I mean," he half-shouted, "you never know. They have to get their facts from somewhere, those crazy fangirls."

Chaplin made shooing motions at them. "Go on, _I'll _guard them. Skadaddle then... or I'll tell everyone your REAL names."

"You're bluffing," the ninja with the trident said. His comrade looked unsure.

Chaplin put his hands behind his back and stuck out his chin. "If you say so... Harold."

The trident wielding member of the Foot walked off quickly. The other remained positioned by the door, laughing. "Harold... Oh my."

"It's better than Shirley," hissed Chaplin.

The last Elite ninja disappeared faster than his friend, leaving Chaplin by the door. Chaplin did a victory dance, which consisted of raising his arms over his head and swaying them, sticking his tongue out and having his eyes closed. The dummy slid down his arm and rested on his shoulder, gazing into space.

After performing the pointless dance, he rested the dummy on the crook of his left arm and stared at the door. He had been so eager to burst in, it was unusual that now he wasn't as certain.

"Maybe she hates him so much, she wants to make sure he doesn't escape," he mused. "If I was to go in, I might distract them and Leonardo would leave before we can react. I can always see her later, I guess."

His eyes darted towards the dummy.

"What's that?" he asked. "You think I shouldn't risk it? You think that even if I am just being silly, she will be impressed and touched that I care so much about her?"

He bit his lip.

"Hm... How about I listen in?" he suggested. "I could put my head against the door and see what I can hear. Or is it hear what I can see? No... hear what I hear. Yeah. And if I don't like what I hear or don't hear, then I should enter. Yeah. Yeah."

He got out a strange piece of metallic headgear and put it on. Attached to one of the ears was a wire with a circular piece of metal at the end. He put this part against the door.

"... You cannot deny it! It is love!"

"No, it isn't. It can't be."

"What else can it be?"

"Hate?"

"Definitely not. It is the opposite, in fact."

"Like?"

"Perhaps, but it does not explain certain things. You must face the truth, Leonardo. What we have here is love."

Chaplin ripped the device from the door, his eyes filling with tears of pain and heartbreak. It would be one thing if Leonardo had a one-sided crush on her... but for Karai herself to be announcing it... He couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it.

"No," he snarled at the dummy. "I just misheard it and my mind's making things up. There's no way that they... my mistress and my enemy... our enemy..."

With shaking hands, he replaced the circular piece of metal.

"I don't think it's love."

"I do. I do with all my heart. Use your head, Leonardo. The answer is so simple. It is L.O.V.E. Love."

There. There was the proof that he needed. Chaplin had been betrayed. He wanted to run out of the building and fall into a pit of bloodthirsty lemurs. Yet... he couldn't. He shouldn't. He wouldn't.

When you are competing with someone, there is a very easy way of beating them.

It is eliminating them, leaving you the only person who would win by default.

Chaplin ran down the corridor, the most fantastic idea bubbling in his scientific mind.

TMNTNMT

Leonardo sighed in defeat. Reluctantly, he wrote down the answer to five across.

Karai, who was sitting next to him, pointed at the row of blank squares that branched off the line he had just filled in. "Therefore, as that column is 'love', this one must be 'misunderstanding'."

He wrote that down before holding up the crossword. "Hey, we're nearly done! There's only a few more left."

Karai looked rather smug. "But of course, Leonardo. There are other things I do apart from being the daughter of the infamous Shredder!"

He noticed her expression sadden. "Are there times where you wish he wasn't your father?"

"No," she said. "I would be dead if it was not for him. I owe him my life."

"The Shredder caused my creation but you don't see me bowing down to him and kissing his feet. He's evil, Karai."

"I know that!" she exclaimed. "But what would you do if you found out that Master Splinter had raised you to be evil? To be a tool so he could destroy his enemies? Would you go against him?"

"Yes. Wait." He frowned.

"My point exactly," she concluded, snatching the crossword out of his hands and filling in one of the answers. "I try to avoid performing wicked acts. Some people do not seem to appreciate this."

"He's gone now though," Leonardo pointed out, leaning sideways and peering down at what she had put. "Does that mean that one," he motioned towards a blank row of letters, "is unexpected?"

She nodded, writing the word into the puzzle. "I can still feel his presence though. He is not dead, as I am sure you know. I fear that he will come back and if he sees I am not being as twisted as he was, he will kill me. Or worse. I have nightmares every night about it. Besides, you cannot just leave the Foot. I know too much. They will use that as an excuse to end my life. They do not like me, let alone ex-members. No one likes me."

She looked so pitiful that Leonardo couldn't help but feel sorry for her, even if she had captured him and was holding him hostage. He rested his hand on her shoulder. She flinched and raised her head, staring into his eyes with her catlike green ones. She broke eye contact shortly after, her attention falling back onto the crossword.

"It is lonely, being me. And when you are gone, I will be even more so."

Leonardo tilted his head to one side. "Did... Did you capture me so you could have some company?"

She flushed.

"You know," he said, "you can just invite me around normally. You don't have to go through this whole 'capture me and cause my brothers to attempt to come and retrieve me' thing. Speaking of which, do I really have to choose a number?"

"No," she admitted. "They are perfectly safe. I knew you would not choose between them so I made that up to give you a reason not to try and escape. I suspect that you already have an escape route planned out and you are only not using it because you fear I will order the immediate execution of your siblings if you were to carry it out."

He flashed her a smile. "You know me too well, Karai."

"What plan do you have?"

He winked at her, causing her to smile slightly.

"You are a nice person, Leonardo. After all I have done to you, you remain... kind."

"You're not so bad yourse-"

The wall exploded. Karai and Leonardo got to their feet, their arms outstretched as they tried to block the rapid fall of debris. It was the summer, so it was still light outside, and the harsh brightness burned his eyes. When they finally adjusted to the radiance, he widened his half-closed eyes and blinked a few times.

Outside was a large, silver robot. He and Karai exchanged the most freaked out expressions ever before having their eyes forced into gazing back at the robot floating in front of them.

"Mistress!" shouted the robot. "Mistress! What harm has he inflicted upon you?"

"Is that Chaplin?" Leonardo asked incredulously, pointing at the gigantic, humanoid, metal warrior. It had laser guns sticking out of various parts of its body and an exhaust pipe on its back, which was letting out fire.

The robot shook as the person inside it laughed. Its arms were held out on either side of it, and it clenched its fists like it was holding an invisible beanbag. "Who else could it be? Anyway, Mistress... um, why are you looking at me like that?"

"You are in a robot," she stated.

Chaplin, not knowing what else to do, agreed. "Yeah. Awesome, isn't it? I've been waiting to test it out."

"Test it out?"

"I've come to save you."

"_Save me_?"

"I was worried and didn't want to risk it. You may have been in trouble and your life is much more important than mine."

Karai closed her eyes and went in reverse. "Save me... test it out... a robot."

Chaplin picked up on her lack of enthusiasm and said meekly, "You're not mad, are you?"

She didn't respond. Then Chaplin remembered the conversation he had heard earlier and began shouting at Leonardo. Karai wasn't sure what he was yelling about, but it had something to do with confessing love, witchcraft and leftover spaghetti. Before she could tell him to be quiet and that he was fired, the robot's hand shot out and picked her up.

"Karai!" Leonardo jumped into the air and landed a blow on the robot. He gasped, falling back down and stuffing his hand beneath his armpit. He looked around wildly for his katanas, only to realize that they had been put somewhere else so he couldn't have them. It was a fair enough reason, but it made him pretty annoyed.

Remembering he had been raised in a sewer, where improvising was a life skill, he searched frantically for something to fight the robot with. There was the crossword, a pen, a tray, a plate of half-eaten food and the shackles hanging loosely on his ankles.

"With you safely out of the way, I can destroy Leonardo much easier!" Chaplin explained to her, making the robot blast a red energy beam from its mouth. Even though light is the fastest thing in the world, Leonardo leaped gracefully out of the way. The laser beam hit the wall behind him and made it explode.

He watched as smoke drifted out of its remains and tried to look as cool as possible. He didn't have much time to as Chaplin continued his reign of terror, filling the air with bright lights and flying chunks of wall. Leonardo escaped and ran down the hallway just as the robot entered the building. The blue clad turtle rounded the corner at the end of the corridor just as the robot entered it, crashing into a wall in the process and making it crumble.

Karai tried to break free, but her arms were pinned to her sides by the robot's unyielding grasp. "Let me go!"

"No can do, Mistress. I'm protecting you. I don't want to kill you by accident."

Leonardo was fast. Not as fast as Michelangelo or a cheetah, but still pretty fast. Unfortunately, the robot was speedier than Michelangelo being eaten by a cheetah and so Chaplin caught up with Leonardo in the next corridor, breaking lots of stuff in his haste to catch the turtle.

"I got you!" bellowed Chaplin, zooming forward as a blade came out of the robot's arm. Leonardo widened his eyes and rolled out of the way, hearing the air break just an inch above his head. Adrenaline rushing through his body, he escaped through the hole in the wall next to him and fell headfirst into a pile of laundry.

The robot hopped into the room, looking around. Chaplin growled. Why did ninja turtles have to be so good at hiding? And why didn't he make his robot have x-ray vision or an infrared detector? While he searched through the contents of a washing machine, Leonardo submerged and silently left the room. Karai watched.

Leonardo looked down at his plastron and pulled a face. When he had fallen into the collection of dirty clothes, he had also fallen onto his plate of dinner. A splodge of tomato sauce was on his plastron. And when he looked at the crossword, it was torn slightly. He hadn't even finished it yet.

Breathing deeply, he walked casually down the corridor and went into an elevator. A Foot ninja with big feet was standing in it. Leonardo, seeing that the Foot ninja wasn't attacking him or calling for help, joined him and pressed the button that would take him to the ground floor.

"I have no socks on," the Foot ninja piped up.

Leonardo smiled wanly. "Me neither."

The doors closed and he felt himself plummet downwards. Twinkly music started to play.

The Foot ninja leaned towards Leonardo and said in a deep, menacing voice, "I'm serious. I have no socks on."

The door opened and Leonardo got out hastily. The doors shut as the ninja laughed like a maniac. Shaking his head, Leonardo went to the reception area. A large map of the building was there. He went to it and began moving his finger swiftly across it.

"Looking for something in particular?"

He twisted his head and settled his gaze on the blond receptionist standing near him. Her face was really wrinkly and she didn't have any eyebrows.

"Do you know where prisoners are kept?"

She nodded and pointed to a room on the map. Leonardo, rather than being ecstatic, was suspicious.

"Are you telling the truth?"

"Y-yes."

Leonardo took note of the location and bowed. She ran off, screaming, "Don't kill me!"

Feeling reassured, he went back to the elevator. He narrowed his eyes upon sight of the Foot ninja from before. Leonardo pressed the button that would take him to the fifth floor and waited, putting his hands on his shell and rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"I like paperclips," whispered a voice right in his ear. Leonardo jolted sideways. The Foot ninja was leering at him. "Do you?"

"I... I don't know." The door opened and Leonardo made a quick getaway. The Foot ninja waved pleasantly.

Unsurprisingly, yet severely disappointingly, the door that led to where his brothers supposedly were was being guarded by two Elite Foot ninjas. They both had their arms crossed and had their backs to each other. Leonardo hid around the corner and watched them. They were in a fouler mood than usual, their eyes narrowed and their body's as still as a statue of an Elite Foot ninja standing still.

"Harold," spat the one with the two-edged sword.

"Shirley," the one with the trident responded coldly.

Leonardo sighed. He didn't doubt his abilities, particularly when it came to fighting, and he was sure that he could take the two of them down. His only worries were that more would be summoned to the scene and that they didn't have a key. Scratching his chin, he looked down at the plate of spaghetti and the loose chains attached to his limbs. A metaphorical light bulb shone over his head as he clicked his fingers.

One of the Elite Foot ninjas, who happened to be looking in Leonardo's direction, suddenly sprung to life as someone approached him. He boggled his eyes, unbelieving of what was happening.

A turtle in an orange mask and holding nunchunks approached. He had a magazine tucked under his arm. "Hi!"

"You're the stupid one!" Harold shouted. Shirley turned around at the sound of him yelling and flinched, all anger at his comrade forgotten. "How did you get out without us noticing?"

"There's a giant hole in the wall. We've been out for ages. I even managed to get hold of this magazine."

Shirley got out a key and unlocked the door. No sooner had he done so when Leonardo kicked him, whacking his shackles against Harold's head. After various cool moves and awesome attacks, the two Elite ninjas were out cold. Beyond their bodies were three mutant turtles, all gagged and bound to the walls. It was nowhere near as nice as where Leonardo had been held. It was freezing, dirty and there wasn't a small TV.

He took the rag out of Donatello's mouth first. The purple masked turtle gasped for breath before spluttering, "You took your time!"

"I was preoccupied," Leonardo apologized, removing Raphael's and Michelangelo's gags as well. He paused, unsure how to undo the chains. "Now how do I...?"

"The Elite's weapons," Donatello suggested. Leonardo mumbled something about being about to mention that before picking up the sword. He cut the chains and soon the four brothers were free and together.

"Can I like ask why your mask is coated with spaghetti sauce?" asked Michelangelo.

"Yes, but I won't answer," Leonardo snapped. He was tired and just wanted to go home, and have a nice, long shower. He picked up the trident and threw it to the others. There was a brief fight to decide who got to use it. Raphael won, sneering at his younger brothers, who were scowling.

Leonardo led them out of the cell. Finally, they could return to their home. Yep. There was nothing that could possibly-

The ceiling gave way and the robot landed heavily, just missing Donatello's foot. Karai tapped her fingers against the robot's knuckles, sighing. None of the turtles seemed taken aback by the new arrival.

"I have all four of you where I want," Chaplin announced. "Mistress didn't eliminate you because she wanted me to prove myself, so I will do it on her behalf."

Seeing as he hated Leonardo the most, he shot him with a laser beam first. Leonardo jumped out of the way and came to a rest next to his tray, which he had abandoned earlier. Another laser beam went towards him so he picked up the tray to use as a shield.

The beam bounced off it and hit the robot. It exploded and Karai fell to the ground.

"Thank you for not catching me," she said.

"Yer welcome," said Raphael.

TMNTNMT

Leonardo and Karai bowed at each other. The Sun had set and the only source of light was the streetlight they were under. They were standing at the opening of an alleyway, which was a few feet away from a manhole. Leonardo's brothers hadn't wanted to stick around and were already in the lair, watching late night cartoons. Chaplin had to repay the damages he had caused by working for Karai for the next ten years. He didn't mind.

"I guess I'll see you around," Leonardo said after a really long silence. He turned away to go but a hand landed on his shoulder. Karai dodged around him so she was standing in front of him.

Silently, she leaned forward and placed the magazine into his hands. Leonardo, understanding, took it and disappeared down the manhole. Halfway home, he opened it up to the crossword.

The last word was filled in.

It was 'friend'.


End file.
